The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

U Ba resumes his story with Su Kyi leading Tin to U May, a trusted 80-year-old Buddhist monk. U May grew up a wealthy merchant’s son, whose father intended for him to become a businessman and take over their plantation. U May’s father arranged a marriage for him, but U May was in love with their cook’s 16-year-old daughter, Ma Mu, who was pregnant with his child. U May’s father sent the cook and Ma Mu away without telling his son. U May searched for Ma Mu and his son and later learned that he indirectly caused their deaths (they had drowned after Ma Mu spotted him boarding a ship and fell). This led him to become a Buddhist monk in Kalaw, the birthplace of Ma Mu.

U May says the monastery will teach Tin how to be a novice monk. He will go out graciously each morning with a bowl to receive whatever offering he may be given. Tin is reluctant to go the next morning until he hears the children in the monastery singing: “The voices calmed Tin Win. As if someone were stroking his face and his belly, soothing him. He stood frozen, listening” (116). He begins to hear the leaves singing in the trees and realizes that they each have their own sound, their own vibration. Years later, while sitting in a concert hall in New York City, he remembers the time he heard these leaves.

Gradually, Tin becomes accustomed to going out each morning with the other novices, begging for food offerings, and bringing them back to share. They share a large room for sleeping. Each day, they listen to U May’s lessons; Tin finds his voice soothing. An apt student, Tin has private lessons with U May.

Each night, Tin falls asleep listening to sounds near and far. When there is complete silence, he feels he has fallen into an abyss. He remembers U May’s lesson on fear: “There was only one force more powerful than fear. The old man had comforted him. He would find it. Only he must not look for it” (126).

Over a four-year period, Tin becomes the most adept student at the monastery. He solves math problems in his head and reads philosophical treatises in braille, fully grasping their meanings.

One mid-day, as Tin walks through the monastery, he hears a new sound—a soft beating. He is unusually curious about it. Simultaneously, he becomes acutely aware of other minute sounds—mirroring the sensation he’d felt upon hearing the monastery’s children singing.

Tin moves toward the beating sound and asks if someone is there. A girl’s voice answers. As he draws close to her, he realizes the sound is her heartbeat. She says she has seen him many times at the monastery and identifies herself as Mi Mi. She says she must go but will see him again soon. As she leaves, she crawls rather than walks.

After Mi Mi has gone, Tin discovers he can still hear the most minute sounds. Many are sounds that he has not heard before and cannot identify. He wants to find somebody who can identify these sounds. At home with Su Kyi, Tin hears her heartbeat as well as those of everyone around them; he can differentiate people by their heartbeats. In the house, he can hear the minute sounds of a spider spinning its web and a bee crawling across a flower.

The next morning, Tin makes his way toward the center of the village, working to identify the sounds he hears. Someone calls his name, and he recognizes the voice as Mi Mi. They sit on the curb by a small pagoda. Tin is intrigued by her heartbeat, as it is the most beautiful sound he has ever heard and different from anyone else’s heartbeat. He asks if she can hear a quiet drumming from behind the pagoda, then asks her to see what it is. Mi Mi says all she can see is a bird’s nest; Tin identifies the drumming as the heartbeat of an unhatched chick. Mi Mi says she will check the nest for an egg if Tin helps her. She climbs on his back and spots an egg. Tin is thrilled by this because it confirms his ability to hear new sounds correctly. He asks Mi Mi why she did not look in the nest herself. She places his hands on her legs: “His fingers moved slowly down her legs to her ankles, which were slender, but then oddly misshapen. Her feet were immovable. They were stiff and turned inward” (146).

U Ba tells Mi Mi’s backstory. She is the youngest child and only girl of her parents. While people ridicule her and believe her club feet to be a form of punishment, her mother Yadana adores her. After a year, Yadana persuades her husband to recognize what a beautiful child Mi Mi is. She has a singing voice so lovely and desired that some people are “healed” by it: “…she radiated such dignity that people at the market would step aside and treat her with great respect” (154). At some point, she decided to stop singing. She wishes to save her voice but doesn’t tell her parents why.

As the narrative returns to Julia, she struggles with the veracity of U Ba’s story, asking, “Was I supposed to believe that my father had not only been blind as a young man, but had lost his heart to a cripple” (155). Part of her wants to declare the story a farce and leave, while another part tells her that she needs to listen.

U Ba brings in a neighbor, a young woman, who has prepared flatbread treats for Julia. Afterward, Julia directly asks U Ba where her father is. He responds that she is getting closer to her father all the time, and that since she has already waited for four years, she can wait a few more hours.

U Ba resumes the story by describing Tin’s changes after meeting Mi Mi. Tin tells Su Kyi about his ability to hear minute sounds. Su Kyi rejoices in his imagination, not realizing he is telling the truth.

Tin impatiently waits for the next market day so he can find Mi Mi in the marketplace. He realizes there will be an overwhelming number of new sounds and people, though for the first time, he is unafraid. As he listens in the market, he becomes aware of all the different smells and sensations too. Then, “Tin Win listened hard. There it was. So tender and fragile, so steady” (163). Though she is in a back corner of the market, Tin can hear Mi Mi’s heart.

Mi Mi is a patient person because she has been carried everywhere all her life. Though excited about seeing Tin in the market, she manages her anticipation by reflecting on their previous encounters. She spots him, and he carries her on his back.

Tin carries Mi Mi and feels like he is entering a labyrinth. Mi Mi guides him with words and tugs on his shoulder. They leave the village to visit a railroad track, something Tin heard about but never saw himself. He realizes that as long as he is on the track, he will not stumble on an unseen obstacle; he begins to run. Mi Mi says nothing, wrapping her legs around him. Eventually, they stop to rest. Tin promises to take Mi Mi back to her house atop a mountain when the day is over, so her brother doesn’t have to carry her.

Tin and Mi Mi regularly meet on market day and go exploring. She rides on his back as they traverse the village, finding new sounds. She gets on her hands and knees, crawling and digging to discover what makes the sounds Tin hears. He recognizes people by their heartbeats and can understand how people feel based on the tone of their voices. Though heartbeats typically match the tone of a person’s voice, sometimes there is an important distinction. This is particularly true with U May, whose voice is robust, but not his heart: “It sounded fragile and weak, spent and weary” (179). Tin wonders whether he should trust U May’s voice or his heart.

Tin and Mi Mi continue to expand each other’s worlds. U Ba repeats their first meeting from Mi Mi’s perspective. She was intrigued by Tin and almost put herself in his path several times so that he would fall over her and at least become acquainted with her. On the day they met, she “read more in his milk-veiled eyes than she ever could with her parents or brothers. She saw that he knew what loneliness was…” (184). This meeting marked the end of her isolation.

One day, Mi Mi does not show up at the market. Tin goes to her mountain home and finds it empty. As he waits, he flashes back to waiting for his mother, who never returned.

Tin is desolate. He wakes in the middle of the night wailing, terrifying Su Kyi. He refuses to eat or drink, lying on his sleeping mat without moving or speaking.

A week passes and Mi Mi shows up, riding on the back of one of her brothers. She visits a sleeping Tin and sits down with her legs around his head. Su Kyi goes outside and waits. Breaking her silence, Mi Mi sings to Tin throughout the day and evening. Su Kyi goes back inside after dark and makes a place for Mi Mi to sleep. The next morning, Tin wakes up hungry and thirsty, ready to resume his life.

Tin takes Mi Mi for a walk. She explains that her family visited the mountains to see other relatives because an aunt died. Tin tells her that he was afraid he had lost her. She replies, “You don’t need to be afraid. You can’t lose me. I am a part of you, just as you’re a part of me” (197).

It begins to rain, and the pair cross a river. They roll down the hill, with Mi Mi ending up on top of Tin. He becomes aware of her body in a way he had not been before. They cross a small tree bridging a river. They find a shack and lie down as rain pounds the roof. They touch each other and become aroused. Tin stops out of respect for Mi Mi, choosing to simply lie beside her.

For four years, Tin and Mi Mi maintain their relationship, seeing each other daily and deepening their affection and trust. They swim in a lake that other young people do not frequent because it supposedly has water snakes. When Mi Mi asks if the idea of snakes bothers Tin, “he laughed and said that he had never see any” (204). One day, they swim to a rock in the middle of the lake and express their desire to never be separated. Mi Mi tells Tin that she is miserable every minute she is apart from him.

Having heard the slowing heartbeat of U May over time, Tin realizes his master’s death is near. He and Mi Mi spend time with U May. Mi Mi offers to sing for U May, but he declines, saying he does not want his life prolonged by artificial means. As the pair sit in a tearoom one day, monks tell them that U May is dying. Mi Mi climbs on Tin’s shoulders, and they run to the monastery. The Great Hall is filled with monks, townspeople, and others. U May asks if Tin and Mi Mi are near. When the pair draw close, he asks if they remember how he wanted to die. Tin replies, “Free of fear and with a smile on your lips” (211). Proclaiming he has no fear, U May quietly dies.

Mi Mi’s mother, Yadana, recognizes the budding romance between Mi Mi and Tin. She believes they suit each other, as Tin is a fine person who worked hard to overcome his hardships and make Mi Mi happy. She also feels a bit jealous of their bond. With both teenagers nearing 18, Yadana wishes to discuss matrimony—but is content to wait until Mi Mi herself brings it up.

After a day of swimming at the lake, Tin arrives home to find two men sent by his uncle; they waited for him all day. They tell him that they are going to take him to his uncle in Rangoon the next morning. Tin realizes that he’ll be leaving the only life he has known.

After dark, Tin runs to Mi Mi’s home and wakes her, carrying her to the rain shelter. He tells her that he will depart in the morning, and they make love for the first and final time.

The next morning, a desolate Tin returns home before his uncle’s men arrive. Su Kyi has packed his few belongings and notes his immense grief. She walks with Tin and the men to the train station; Tin and the men immediately board the waiting train. Su Kyi walks beside the open window as the train begins to move, calling out to Tin, whose face is buried in his hands. She walks to the end of the platform and watches as the train disappears into the horizon.

Julia resumes the story. Having heard the story of her father’s separation from Mi Mi, she feels devastated and sobs. She is exhausted but does not want to return to her hotel. Julia asks if she can sleep on U Ba’s couch. She falls asleep and wakes after dark, covered with a second blanket. U Ba has set out food and tea for her.

Julia wakes the next morning, refreshed. The table is set for breakfast. She walks through U Ba’s house and remembers it lacks electricity and running water. U Ba calls to her from his library; it contains thousands of books. Julia watches him repair an old book with worm holes, gluing paper and completing missing letters and words. He says this is what he does for fun. They converse about the books. U Ba produces a copy of a braille book that had been one of his father’s favorites.

Julia hears the distant sounds of children singing. U Ba explains that the voices belong to children from a mountain monastery, which can be heard when the wind is right. He says this is the same sound that Tin and Mi Mi would have heard 50 years ago. Julia feels closer to her father than ever before; she reflects on her father’s love of music. Every night, Tin wore headphones and listened to music before going to sleep; he even wept at concerts.